


Mage's Cold War

by ThalinVien



Category: LACKEY Mercedes - Works, Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: 1980s, A-10 Warthog, Aircraft, Alternate Universe - 1980s, C-130 Hurcules, Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, F/M, Russia, US Air Force, USSR, gryphons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28226775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThalinVien/pseuds/ThalinVien
Summary: A modern adaptation of the early gryphon stories to take place during the US vs USSR cold war. A story with gryphons, guns, jets, mages and of course fantastic music.





	1. Pilot

A pilot chapter to gauge interest...

\----

Silence.

Well relative silence filled the briefing room of Building 73, the oldest building on Loring Air Force Base, Limestone Maine, one of the most northernmost points in the frozen state. The building was completely modified with large hallways and rooms, this briefing room that Skandranon Raskae, The Black Gryphon, occupied was no exception he looked out the huge glass window and down onto the alert pad, a C-130 specially equipped for the birds and 6 A-10 fighters sat ready for the alert force gryphons and humans to be launched to whatever this cold war brought them. The furnance in the basement lit off with a subtle yet noticeable rumble, that same basement holding 6 gryphons and many humans, likely still asleep, he glanced up at the clock on the wall, 0443, he sighed and paced around a bit.

This base had 2 long 16,000 foot runways and two alert forces, this one, the only gryphon force in the US, and a complement of human support personnel, the other side of the base held the bomber alert force, all human and with a fleet of B-52 bombers. Both forces poised ready to respond to whatever Ma'ar and the USSR had in store for them, lately tensions had been raising between the two countries, but the posture at least from the military standpoint was the same, be ready, ask questions later.

Soon the automatic door opened and the black gryphon looked up and smiled at who entered "Little cold out there for you Chrisssy?" he said with a little his of a chuckle.

The Tervardi male groaned and marched forward "Close!" he barked at the door that finally closed to seal the sub-zero temperature outside. He walked to the table at the center of the room and started to shed his hat and gloves, sliding a copy of the New York Times and a cassette down the table toward the huge gryphon. Skan quickly stopped it sliding with a talon. "took me forever to find that, found it at some small store in Boston" Chris said flumping into a seat made for humans at the table, and looking to his friend

"Eexxxxcelent, thank you!" Skan said looking at the copy of Sports by Hewie Lewis and the News.

"Now if you could not break it apart like you did the last one, reeeemeber, eeeeasy out… easy inn" Chris said then looking aside and chuckled "that's what she said"

"Heh, yaknow, gotta enjoy it" The black gryphon snickered looking at the newspaper, January 23 1984, was the date.

The two exchanged morning gossip back and forth, mainly about who's dating who and who got in trouble for what.

Chris was a field engineer for Raytheon, one of the many civilian contractors that supported the gryphons, the black and white Tervardi was stationed on this base and helped with repairs and training to the flight packs the gryphons wore, as well as other tech on base for communications and intelligence. In the course of his duties he became friends with all the gryphons, which were currently a very niche group, they provided close air support for certain tactical missions, this base was the only one with them so far, currently operating as a semi-classified pilot project.

The morning briefing went on without a hitch, everyone on duty piled into the room and got the day's orders which mostly consisted of 'find busy', however just when everyone was clearing out the PA system burst to life "ALERT FORCE ALERT FORCE KLAXON KLAXON" The the alarm started blaring, but the alert forces were already sprinting down hallways and bursting out the door, the gryphons all were inside then the humans followed, closing the doors as the engines started. The A-10s were starting, the bombers were already rolling, this made many hearts skip a beat, these two forces never ever launched together… was this real world? No time to think about that now, as the G-forces pushed everyone back as the jet assisted takeoff pushed the C-130 off the runway airborne.

When the plane reached their destination the back door was lowered and one-by-one they jumped out the back "1...2...3...4" It was always a count of 4 seconds before they opened their wings and started decent onto target, a Distant Early warning radar site was bring sabotaged by 3 makkar, however when they were just getting ready to engage all the found were 3 makkar bodies and a small… different gryphon looking at all of them, decked out in the bulky flight computer, holstering their talon-guns "d-did you do this?" Aubri was finally the one to pipe up and ask, with a weak nod Zhaneel confirmed, while looking up to see the A-10s circling the air above them


	2. Far too small

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris learns more about this mysterious smaller gryphon

"By the time this rare footage of the Gryfalcon was shot" The deep voice of the video's narrator said as Chris and Skandranon watched the TV in empty briefing room, sans the tervardi and gryphon "The project had already been abandoned and the air trials were a mere formality" The TV showed video that was clearly shot on poorly preserved film, dust and scratches made the already shaky picture that much worse, but it showed a small, very small gryphon doing various aerial maneuvers.

"Wow… lookit her go…" Skan muttered moving closer to the screen, whipping his head toward Chris in anger when the screen turned blue "STOP" in the upper corner. Chris leaned back in his chair and looked confused "So… so explain this all to me again…. The whole how gryphons work thing"

Skan sighed and slumped into one of the chairs designed to allow a gryphon to lay in it "So we're essentially mage constructs… I mean trust me there's definitely some contributions to reproducing but" The two chuckled at that as Chris rolled his eyes "Urtho made us he's not a military contractor or anything… some clever _Interpretation_ of the law we were made into citizens then drafted into service… which if you're smart you then go down and sign up for what you want and here's where we all are… its-"

Chris nodded interrupting Skan slightly, and backed the video up, then pressed play again "Soooo her" He quickly pushed pause and the screen froze on a close up of this mystery gryfalcon "she's different?"

"Yes she is apparently-"

"How do you know it's a girl anyway?" Chris interrupted

"You know" Skan smirked "It's the colors… she's not even painted… females are typically pretty bland colored" Aside from the required "US AIR FORCE" painting on her body and wings she was pretty plainly colored "But that HP Fairfield they talk about at the beginning, I looked them up they were trying to compete for a contact to 'replace' us" Skan grumbled he hated when it became clear gryphons were viewed even moreso as 'assets' than humans were.

Chris nodded and pressed play "- also had to accommodate the heavy Raytheon flight pack as well as a rifle… although the design called for a light avian body the overall concept resulted in a gryphon the air force considered far to smaller for combat operations" The voice said… Skan was intently watching while Chris smirked at his oddly piqued curiosity " By the time this rare footage of the Gryfalcon was shot the project had already been abandoned and the air trials were a mere formality… this despite several successful test missions with the Gryfalcon"

"So she apparently was found at one of the DEW line radars with dead Makkar? They were THAT close?" Chris said taking a sip of his coffee

Skan nodded "Yeah no shit… she's coming here today to be questioned I need to see what's going on myself, somebody might have some explaining to do."

"Politics they'll get ya every time skanny" Chris said standing and folding his newspaper "I gotta go check up on some fledgelings, I'll be by later to see how it went"


End file.
